AI assistant
SpectrumOne AB — Earnings Release 2019
Apr 11, 2019
8586_rns_2019-04-11_377ff174-2a1c-41e4-a131-03a96f61ace3.html
Earnings Release
Open in viewerOpens in your device viewer
CEO update with notice of update on prognosis, announcement of cost cuts, sales progress, issue of new shares and market outlook
CEO update with notice of update on prognosis, announcement of cost cuts, sales progress, issue of new shares and market outlook
TargetEveryone has been through a significant turnaround over the last months.
Coming out of 2018 it was very clear to us that we had to take some fundamental
steps to ensure the survival of the company. Our legacy platform saw declining
revenues throughout 2018 and we lost several key customers. In parallel, the
market for 1-1 dialogue solutions matured and we faced stiff competition from
online subscription solutions. We have reduced most efforts towards development
on our legacy platform in order to commercialize on our new software platform,
SpectrumOne. This is where the future of the company now lies. For SpectrumOne
we see a fast-growing pipeline with frequent signings of new customers from a
range of different industries. The reception is very good, our go-to market
plans are working, and we are fueled by an accelerating Martech market.
Unfortunately, the time it has taken us to be able to commercialize SpectrumOne
has been slower than we expected due to both internal and external factors, and
this impacts on our estimated sales in 2019. Combined with an unexpected event
in our financing, we need further funding until we reach the total amount we
asked for in the IPO last June.
We admit that this has been even more of a turnaround case than we expected, and
should have been more careful with our expectations of the work required to
complete SpectrumOne and change the organizational focus. Still, it is now very
satisfying to see that the signings we have made in Q1 proves our product in the
market.
Cost cuts
As a result of the clear strategic focus, we have now been able to reduce costs
substantially across the whole operation. TargetEveryone had a lot of different
product and sales initiatives that demanded too much resources to handle,
without generating sufficient revenue or profitability. Contracts with non-value
adding partners are now terminated and the legal group structure is reduced. By
directing our efforts towards SpectrumOne, we have discontinued the direct sales
and new product development of our legacy platform. This led to the previously
announced staff reduction of 3 FTEs. Furthermore, we have also terminated our
responsibilities towards our Indian Subsidiary, leading to a reduction of 22
FTE´s.
TargetEveryone founder and former CEO, Björn Forslund, is a very creative and
dedicated person. To pursue this interest, Björn will leave TargetEveryone and
continue with his own company with immediate effect. Björn´s new company will
onwards be responsible for maintenance and support of the legacy platform as
well as software updates. This will generate a cost reduction in TargetEveryone
by approximately of MSEK 0,7 per month whilst TargetEveryone maintain
approximately 90% of legacy revenue. As compensation for this, Björn's company
will be granted a free and perpetual license to utilize the legacy platform for
its own needs and customers. TargetEveryone will keep all intellectual property
rights of the legacy platform and the outsourcing will not affect our ability to
deliver towards existing customers. Björn and his company will also be a close
partner of TargetEveryone, both within sales and product development.
Björn says:
I consider this as a good solution for both TargetEveryone and my own company.
My passion is to develop great products, and I will now have the opportunity to
do this in a way that benefits both companies, by being a close partner. I am
also one of the biggest shareholders in TargetEveryone and I feel strongly
committed to help develop solutions that benefits the company.
Additionally, we have reduced staff with one further FTE, which after the
discontinuation of our Indian operation now gives a total reduction of staff
from 40 to 12 FTEs without impacting our ability to deliver on SpectrumOne.
Remaining staff is now focused on sales, operational support and product
development. New software development is done in close cooperation with our 30%
owned strategic partner Cloud Explorers. Total effect of the initiatives
described above is a 30 % reduction of ordinary running fixed costs (personnel,
opex and net finance) from MSEK 4.0 to MSEK 2.8 on a monthly basis. The majority
of these savings take effect from April, and all savings are included from July.
Sales and 2019 revenue prognosis
Development of deep technology software requires highly skilled people and
significant time. Compared to other companies we are proud of what we have
created for our customers in such a short time. In 15 months, we have developed
SpectrumOne with a total cost of approximately MSEK 15. We launched our first
version of SpectrumOne in January, but experienced that there still were some
adjustments that had to be done before it was fully shippable. Parallelly, we
also experienced that the sales process of our SaaS platform required longer
lead time than expected. SaaS sales cycles are longer than typical product sales
of our legacy platform, and we now anticipate typical sales cycle to be 2-6
months.
The consequence of this is that we are four months delayed compared to our 2019
revenue prognosis. Thus, the 2019 full year revenue forecast is reduced as the
last four months was the most revenue generating, due to the effect of
accumulated customers and high consumption. We will publish a new prognosis
after Q2, when the ARR from signed customers gives a more predictable future.
Capital increase
In June 2018, when we listed on Oslo Stock Exchange Merkur Markets, we sought
MNOK 80 in new funding. The excessive MNOK 30 from the minimum amount of MNOK 50
was assigned to finalize the development and introduce SpectrumOne in the
market. The outcome of the IPO after all expenses was a MNOK 52 (MSEK 56)
funding, that left us with a MSEK 30 deviation. MSEK 41 of these funds were
earmarked for repayment of convertibles from previous round. As such, we did not
have enough financing to complete the SpectrumOne delivery, and this has since
had a negative impact on our finances. Nevertheless, we saw the great
opportunity for SpectrumOne in the market and the competitive advantage that
this platform could give us. Thus, we decided to continue the development and
seek new financing along the way.
The convertible loan rights issue in February brought MSEK 17. The temporary
financing after the IPO and convertible right issue has been expensive with
approximately MSEK 6 in total costs. This is only the direct costs, and the
indirect costs associated with the funding has also been significant as it slows
down the development of underlying business. In summary, this leaves us with a
deviation of MSEK 19 compared to our original request.
In January, we expected the MSEK 17 convertible loan right issue, to be
sufficient to reach break-even. This was less than the previously announced
funding request, because we expected the sales take immediate effect in 2019.
The delay described above had a significant impact on the need for funding.
Parallelly, we had an unexpected withdrawal of a bridge loan that aggravated the
situation.
In order to continue developing and taking SpectrumOne to the market, the Board
will suggest a new rights issue, to be decided at the Annual General Meeting in
May. The rights issue will raise up to MSEK 43 with a MSEK 21 guarantee, which
is MSEK 2 higher than the MSEK 19 we are still missing. The details regarding
the rights issue will follow in a separate press release. There are two reasons
why we now seek a solid funding for TargetEveryone.
Firstly, we want to solve this once for all. Funding processes are very resource
demanding for small companies, and we have spent too much time on these process
that could have been used on customers and development. Temporary financing is
also expensive for the shareholders, without generating any value.
Secondly, we parallelly want to seek funding for further growth and development.
We estimate that the guarantee will cover the necessary funding to reach a
positive cash flow. The excessive amount will be allocated to accelerate this
growth. We have a cutting-edge product and it is important to keep time-to
-market short, to take advantage of this position. By combining these two
funding processes, we will save time and ensure our efforts are directed towards
increasing shareholder value. We can also ensure that this funding will be used
carefully, as our recent actions shows that we have taken control over the costs
and reduced it significantly. The funding will not be spent on acquisitions or
larger one-time investments without consulting with major shareholders.
Customers and general pipeline
Even though the sales have been delayed we were proud to sign 7 customers in Q1.
We are very close to signing 2-3 additional customers, and expect to announce
these contracts very soon. For the next quarters we expect customer acquisition
to increase steadily as our product reaches increased acceptance in the market.
As anticipated, our software can be applied to a number of different industries
with customers coming from Auto, Insurance, Banking, Advertisement Agencies, B2B
and B2C. This spread proves that the market sees the value of our marketing
platform, and only in the Nordics we are presented with a potential of + 1.000
customers. The pace of the sales also accelerated towards the end of the quarter
as SpectrumOne became fully shippable and we have managed to build up the
pipeline.
We currently have a strong pipeline built up after only three months of
concentrated work on our new SaaS solution. Several offers are sent, many
successful meetings have been held and almost 200 active leads are started. The
customers with monthly licenses below the expected TSEK 50 average have shorter
lead times than the customers with higher licenses. Thus, the medium customers
are dominating the customers closest to signing, but we expect this to even out
through the second half of the year. Since SpectrumOne is a brand-new software,
we have reduced the duration of the contracts to ease the entrance into a
business relationship. This affects the ARR, but we see low risk in this since
the feedback on the platform an it´s value to the users is solid. As we proceed
into Q2 and second half year, the contract lengths will be normalized with
twelve months duration, and the ARR will increase swiftly.
We have also strengthened our total sales capacity, by redirecting 1,5 FTEs from
delivery and administration towards sales, and established a sales partnership
with our board member Erik Fagerlid. Erik has strong knowledge and an extensive
network within the Norwegian retail industry. We are also pursuing similar
opportunities in Sweden. More than 50% of our headcount is now dedicated to
sales, which we believe to be an important shift in our scale up period.
It is also satisfying to see that we have managed to sign three advertising
agencies with Foll, Schjærven and Createurene, out of two reasons: Firstly,
these are leading advertising agencies in Norway and Sweden, in the front of the
development of the marketing industry, who knows what´s generating value to
their customers. Secondly, their portfolio of strong brands will give a quick
entrance to customers that are very suitable to SpectrumOne.
TargetEveryone´s future
This has been even more of a turnaround case than expected, with the
introduction of a brand-new SaaS platform, traversing from product to enterprise
sales, shut down of several initiatives, significant cost cuts and
organizational changes - with the ever-present financial situation hanging over
us.
In essence, TargetEveryone now is a brand-new company ready for the future with
only two value pockets; SpectrumOne and online subscription sales of our legacy
platform. With our unique software offering, a strong pipeline, new management
group and trimmed organization we are now extremely positive about the outlook.
The recent - and upcoming customer signings combined with cost cuts shows that
we are on the right track. We daily see examples that the Martech market is an
attractive spot for investors with high growth rates, a lot of opportunities and
consequently high valuations. Analysts such as Gartner predicts that the market
for marketing software will grow tremendously over the next years, with expected
investments from close to all medium-large companies, regardless of industry. We
in TargetEveryone have now been through some challenging months, but are more
motivated than ever to go ahead with our state of art Martech platform, generate
value for both our clients and shareholders, and then look beyond our Nordic
home market for future growth.
Oslo, April 11, 2019
Torkel Johannessen
For further information contact:
Vegard Brattum
CFO
+47 977 00 338
Certified Adviser:
Mangold Fondkommission AB (556585-1267)
Box 55 691 102 15 Stockholm
Telefon: +46 8 503 015 50
www.mangold.se
TargetEveryone AB (publ) is obligated to publish this information under the EU
Market Abuse Regulation. The information was provided by the above contact
person's auspices, for publication on April 11, 2019 at 10.30 p.m. CET.